Various types of single-serve beverage brewers have been developed in recent years. These machines are generally designed with brewing chambers adapted to receive a small packet of ground coffee or other beverage material. Once the beverage packet is placed in the brewing chamber, the machine injects hot water into the packet to produce a single serving of freshly brewed beverage. Some machines have brewing chambers configured to receive pods that are small, flattened disk-shaped filter packages of beverage material, while other machines are configured to accommodate larger, cup-shaped beverage filter cartridges.
One particular type of single-serve beverage brewer designed to accommodate a cup-shaped beverage filter cartridge is manufactured and sold by Keurig Inc. of Wakefield, Mass. The machine has a brewing chamber dimensioned to receive cup-shaped cartridges such as those sold under the brand K-Cup. These cartridges are configured in the form of a container having a permeable filter packet containing a dry beverage medium such as ground coffee, which is disposed in the interior of the container. The machine also has upper and lower puncture needles. In operation, the upper needle punctures the top cover of the cartridge and injects pressurized water through the opening onto the beverage medium while the lower needle punctures the bottom of the cartridge to create an outlet for outflow of the brewed beverage. Additional detailed descriptions of this type of machine and cartridge are provided in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,325,765, 5,840,189 and 6,606,938, which are incorporated herein by reference.
The configuration of the brewing chamber of the above-described single-serve beverage brewer inherently limits the use of the machine to disposable cup-shaped cartridges. Use of these machines results in waste in the form of a disposed cartridge for each brewed cup of coffee. The amount of trash generated by users of these cartridges multiplies quickly. Another consequence is that users of the Keurig machine or similar brewers designed for cup-shaped cartridges would have to purchase a different machine to brew beverage from pods, which are typically somewhat flattened disc-shaped filter paper packets containing coffee. The use of multiple machines can be costly, inconvenient and cause inefficient use of counter space. Thus, there is a need for an apparatus and method for modifying single-serve beverage brewers configured for cup-shaped cartridges so that they can also be used to brew beverages from pods.
Additionally, conventional automated pod brewers typically include a brewing chamber adapted to receive an individual pod. During the brewing process, hot water is injected into the brewing chamber across the surface of the pod while brewed beverage is directed to flow out of an outlet into a cup. Some coffee connoisseurs believe that coffee brewed using pod brewers do not have as good flavor extraction as coffee brewed by baristas who usually tamp or compact the coffee prior to brewing. Thus, there is a need for an improved pod brewing system.
Further, conventional automated pod brewers are not designed to brew coffee from loose grounds. A user of such a brewer is limited in selection to the coffee available for sale in pods, and beverage brewers configured for cup-shaped cartridges limit users to coffee available for purchase in cartridges. A coffee drinker who likes a coffee that is only available as loose grounds or as whole beans cannot brew this coffee in one of these types of brewers.
The present invention has been developed to ameliorate at least one of the above-mentioned shortcomings related to beverage brewing systems.